Text

theses

External ETD doctoral

On Twitter, and other social media platforms, consumers are increasingly engaging with online information. The use of social media for networking is about to be overthrown by another motivation: seeking updates on recent events and news. While the marketing literature has paid attention to some types of content differences, there is little research on which content is better to release when. My dissertation aims to address this gap by examining two types of content that have not previously been studied in social media research—vice versus virtue content, and high-construal versus low-construal content—and showing that there is an asymmetry in how consumers engage in these types of content through the day.

In essay 1, I compare vice content, which promises immediate gratification (e.g., related to celebrities and scandals), to virtue content, which is beneficial in the long run (e.g., related to health and economy). I argue that vice and virtue information attract differential levels of consumer engagement (e.g., number of likes on Twitter), depending on the time of day at which consumers are exposed to the information. My argument is based on the premise that people have high self-control early in the morning, which then prone to fail toward the evening. Consequently, virtue (vs. vice) content fits relatively better in the morning, with a trend toward the reverse as the day progresses. Seven studies—five experiments and two studies using large-scale Twitter datasets—demonstrate that as the day turns from morning to evening, there is a shift in engagement away from virtue content and toward vice content.

In essay 2, I focus on construal that arises due to geographical distance and examine its role in the context of engaging with information. I compare high-construal content (e.g., international news), to low-construal content (e.g., local news). I argue that high-construal content and low-construal content messages attract differential levels of consumer engagement (e.g., number of likes on Twitter), depending on the time of day at which consumers are exposed to the message. Consequently, high-construal (vs. low-construal) messages fit relatively better in the morning, with a trend toward the reverse as the day progresses. Two studies—a study using large-scale Twitter dataset and an experiment—demonstrate that as the day turns from morning to evening, there is a shift in engagement away from high-construal content and toward low-construal content.

These two essays afford implications for theory (e.g., vice vs. virtue, and high vs. low construal) because I present new insights into how these dichotomies influence engagement with social media during the day. Implications also arise for practice, as managers can better decide which content to post when, in order to maximize the engagement of their customers.

ETD_10972

Ph.D.

Includes bibliographical references

doi:10.7282/t3-f1n5-wm74

The author owns the copyright to this work.